What’s CitizenshipGot To Do With It?

Talk by Dr Simon Duffy for the Australian Association of Gerontology, Adelaide, 26 November 2014

Sir Keith Wilson Oration

• Why citizenship should be central

• How to achieve citizenship

• How to organise for citizenship

• How professionals can be citizens

For thousands of years people have struggled to achieve citizenship - to be seen as an equal and for the rights and duties that go with citizenship. But, today we’ve forgotten the true meaning of citizenship. The welfare state, which should support citizenship, instead treats us as tax payers, service users, consumers or patients. This is not just wrong, it is unsustainable. It is time to see citizenship as the purpose of the welfare state and to ensure our society supports citizenship for all.

Citizenship is not the whole of life. But it is critical to the life we lead together - in community. If we ignore it we will find ourselves in big trouble.

3 negative questions

• If we are not enabling citizenship for others then what are we trying to do instead?

• If we are not organised to promote citizenship then what are we organised to promote?

• If we are not acting as citizens in our work then what role are we playing?

Who are the citizens?

• Politics used to mean ‘community life’

• Citizens were just ‘people of the city’ or community (although admittedly not all people were allowed to be citizens)

• Now politics happens ‘elsewhere’

Citizenship seems so distant

• Voting - an activity that takes a few seconds every few years.

• Passport - the ability to leave the community (and then come back)

• Equal rights - being able to get help and protection from others.

Citizenship can’t just be about gettingit must be about giving if it is going work.

Our current understanding of citizenship is unsustainable

Sustainable citizenship

• The ideal of citizenship must have value within the community.

• The work of citizenship must be to practically welcome people into citizenship.

• The conditions for citizenship must be available to all - we must organise for it.

We regard wealth as being something to be properly used, rather than as something to boast about… Here each individual is interested not only in their own affairs but also the affairs of the community… We do not say that one who takes no interest in community life is minding their own business; we say they have no business here at all....

... each single one of our citizens, in all the manifold aspects of life, is able to show themselves the rightful lord and owner of their own person, and do this, moreover, with exceptional grace and exceptional versatility. [Pericles]

Is this dignity?

• Dignity and respect are linked.

• Dignity means worth. We each have equal worth, but sometimes our situation causes others to treat us without worth, without respect, in an undignified way.

• Respect means seeing someone in the right way.

• Citizenship is a way of living together as equals - with mutual respect.

Mark Haydon-Laurelut and Karl Nunkoosing explored what underpins abusive or positive relationships in ‘care settings’. They argue that:

• We tend to treat the challenges of dignity and respect as merely a matter of acceptance or affection - being nice.

• But it is possible to be nice to someone and yet fail to respect them.

• Acceptance must be combined with a positive view of someone’s potential for contribution and the community’s willingness to accept that gift.

• You can like them - yet protect them from life.

• You can also be positive without wanting to be with them - controlling from a distance.

Alternatives to citizenship

Their analysis aligns well with philosophical thinking about community and citizenship. Broadly the alternatives to citizenship are:

• Individualism - protecting me or mine

• Collectivism - controlling them (workers, consumers, service users etc.) for their own good

A philosopher from Mars would hear a people talking like rugged individualists and pretending they didn’t need other people (neoliberals).

But he would see government taking increasing control over people’s lives in the interests of their well-being (utilitarianism).

The problem with utilitarianism• It flourishes despite deep philosophical flaws

• It dominates social science and social policy

• It seems democratic, but implies elitist control

• It’s linked to euthanasia: killing people to reduce pain

• And eugenics: killing or breeding people to improve happiness, race or IQ (pick your poison)

The citizenship alternative• Citizen is both an independent individual and an equal

member of a community to which he or she is bound by duties - responsibilities

• Thus citizenship opens up the door to reconciling our fundamental need to be respected by others - as an equal - in all our diversity.

• The dual nature of this ideal reflects the two modes of its corruptions: liberalism (individualism) or collectivism (statism)

• Citizenship remains a real possibility.

We make citizenship real by1. Finding our sense of purpose

2. Having the freedom to pursue it

3. Having enough money to be free

4. Having a home where we belong

5. Getting help from other people

6. Making life in community

7. Finding love

This protects our dignity1. Our life is seen to have meaning

2. We are not on someone else’s control

3. We can pay our way - we’re not unduly dependent

4. We have a stake in the community

5. We give others the chance to give

6. We contribute to the community

7. We are building the relationships that sustain community

Is this realistic?

Yes. But only if we are prepared to do the work.

Why is it so hard to ‘do’ citizenship?

Is Consumer Directed Care the answer?

Origin of “Consumer” early 15c., "one who squanders or wastes," agent noun from consume. In economic sense, "one who uses up goods or articles" (opposite of producer) from 1745.

Origin of “Care” Old English caru (noun), carian (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Old High German chara 'grief, lament', charon 'grieve', and Old Norse kǫr 'sickbed'.

Is the answer Consumer-led Markets?

This is not a market

This is not a consumer-led market

Origin of agora "assembly place," 1590s, from Greek agora "open space" (typically a marketplace), from ageirein "to assemble," from PIE root *ger- "to gather" (see gregarious ).

what we really need is an ‘agora’

The need for a different kind of relationship between citizens and the citizens we call professionals

A citizen who takes on a paid role on behalf of the community is bound by honour to act on behalf of that community. It is a role of extra responsibility and honour.

The Professional Citizen

• Citizens don’t compete (much) • Citizens don’t rebel (often) • Citizens do cooperate • Citizens do construct

Ursula Le Guin

“Honour can exist anywhere, love can exist anywhere, but justice can exist only among people who found their relationships upon it.”

Let’s choose justice Let’s choose citizenship

© Simon Duffy. www.centreforwelfarereform.org